Only A Handful of Buyers for World’s Most Dexterous Robot Hands
It’s been over two decades since the Shadow Project was launched, eventually paving the way for what was later on touted as the most dexterous robot hand in the world – The Shadow Robot. It still holds that distinction. Even still, don’t expect this to ever start selling like hotcakes!
In case you haven’t seen it yet, we invite you to spend about 10 minutes to view this video:
All of this is made possible through its 24 degrees of freedom and 40 ‘air muscles’. The air muscle is a revolutionary actuator that is extremely lightweight, powerful, and flexible. It functions pretty much like a real-life muscle, i.e., able to contract and relax alternately. See the animated image below.
As stated earlier, there have been a handful of clients; very prominent ones at that. With past buyers like NASA, Carnegie-Mellon University, Tokyo University, LEGO, and, lately, Britain’s Ministry of Defense, you’d think others would follow suit.
So why aren’t companies buying them?
Bill Townsend, the founder and CEO of Barrett Technologies, describes these arms as more appropriate for “emerging applications”. It’s a kind way of saying … their dexterity, which has been their strongest asset, has instead become more of a liability. There just aren’t many applications for them. Barrett Technologies is actually a competitor, developing 3-fingered robot arms widely used by manufacturing companies.
Well, maybe after two decades, that time has finally come. If elderly people can don the HAL-5 suit to make them more mobile, perhaps the Shadow Robot can be suitable for those with arthritic hands. Hmmm…. I wonder if they’d fare better than the door-opening robot.
